Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Ephesians 4:17-32, No longer as the Gentiles live
Paul tells Gentile believers to stop living as the Gentiles do, to put off the old self and put on the new, to give the devil no foothold, to work with their hands and share, and not to grieve the Spirit who sealed them.
Ephesians 4:17-32, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul tells Gentile believers to stop living the way their neighbors do, with darkened minds and lives given over to every impurity. Learning Christ means stripping off the old self like worn clothes and putting on a new one made to be like God. He spells it out in daily terms: tell the truth, deal with anger quickly, stop stealing and work so as to share, speak to build others up, and forgive as God forgave them, without grieving the Spirit who marked them as his.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sexual-morality-in-greek-cities\/","n":"Sex, wine and Greek city ways","s":"Greek and Roman men were expected to have sex outside marriage, with slaves or prostitutes, and the law allowed it. Jews and Christians called all of it porneia, sexual immorality; drunkenness at banquets and in taverns went with it, and the port of Corinth had an old name for it.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-satan\/","n":"The satan, the tempter","s":"The accuser, tempter and deceiver of Jewish belief, seen as the power behind human and political evil. In the Gospels he tests Jesus and is the strong man Jesus binds, and John calls him the ruler of this world.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/working-with-your-hands\/","n":"Manual work and the leisured class","s":"The well-to-do despised people who worked with their hands. A respectable teacher was expected to live on a patron, on fees or even on begging, so an apostle who made tents for his keep looked low class.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/seals-and-deposits\/","n":"Seals, down payments and deposits","s":"A seal pressed into wax showed who owned or witnessed a document or a jar of goods and proved that no one had opened it. A down payment was the first part of the price, paid as a pledge that the rest would follow. A deposit left in someone's keeping had to be guarded and returned.","r":""}
Jewish literature of the period described Gentiles in much the language Paul uses, and most Jews regarded most Gentiles as idol worshipers and sexually loose (Keener and his notes); the Testament of Reuben calls sexual sin the plague of Beliar (Arnold). Keener notes that Paul no longer calls Gentile believers Gentiles. Clothing was a natural picture for putting off and putting on behavior, and the new person probably recalls Adam (Keener and his notes); the CSB Study Bible links it with the baptismal custom of taking off old clothes. Verse 25 quotes Zechariah 8:16 and verse 26 Psalm 4:4 (Wright; Keener), and the Essenes and some philosophers required disputes to be settled the same day (Keener and his notes). Foothold is read two ways: a war picture, ground surrendered to the devil's side (Keener), or simply an opportunity, as in Romans 12:19 (Arnold). Arnold adds that the Testament of Dan ties unchecked anger to Beliar gaining control: "One text in particular links unchecked anger with the devil gaining a foothold." Judaism valued manual work, which the aristocracy disdained (Keener and his notes). Sealing attested that no one had tampered with the goods (Keener and his notes); Wright stresses ownership.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Ephesians 4:17-19, 4:20-24, 4:26, 4:27, 4:28, 4:30 and 4:31
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Ephesians 4:17, 4:22-24, 4:26, 4:28, 4:30 and 4:31
- CSB Study Bible, note on Ephesians 4:17-19
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 4, Judaism, The Influence of the Powers on Individuals, and ch. 9, Giving a Foothold to the Devil
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters, comment on Ephesians 4:25-5:2
